Highland Ceremony For Burial Of Duke

Chronicle (Levin), 24 August 1949, Page 5

Highland Ceremony For Burial Of Duke

Received Tuesday 7 p.m. LONDON, August 22. A traditional Highland ceremony will mark the burial of the tenth Duke of Argyll when his bocly is carried Ln state to the family vault of the Campbells at Kilmun, on the shoreS of Holy Loch. It has not vet been decided, whether the body will be carried by sea, as was done in the case" of the Duke's father and uncle, or by* road round the head ufj Loch Fyne, a distance of 38 miles from Inverary Castle. j The Duke's death has recalled manyi stories about his unbending conserva-' tism, the most notable being an occasion in 1922 when he sent a letter to the then Commissioner of Works (Bir Alfred Mond, later Lord Melcli'ett) waming him that if he "showed his nose" outside the walls of Dunstaffnage Castle, * one' of the Campbell seats, "he would imnrediately be clapped into the castle dungeons." Tbe Duke took this action when the Ministry of Works insisted upon its right to inspect some ancient monuments at i Dunstaffnage. v I: Mac Cailean Mhor, as the Duke 1 was known to his clansmeh in the 'Gaelie, stoutly defended to the last his feudal rights over his domaius, and . in his official correspondence never feferrcd to his estate agent and his tenants, but to his " chamberlain" and ' ' vassals." On sevefai occasions when various Government. -.-de partments infringed, what he consm* ered to be his prerogatives he seu. them ietters which liave been de scribed" as masterpieces of invective Nevertheless, he was a tuan'of simpie tast.es who typ'ified in Very many ways the traditional conceptions • of a great Highland eliieftain. When Inverarv Chureh was repaire.d some years agu the Duke' t'rundled a wheelbarrow and | worked with his hands among the Imasons.